The Last Full Day in Florida

Right after I finished composing the previous message, Leive had another confrontation with Yvonne, the caregiver my parents hired. Although it is clear to everyone except Yvonne that Leive can do a better job of nursing my parents back to health, my Dad ruled in Yvonne’s favor. Thus, in order to keep peace in the family, Leive is going back with me again. At any rate, she accomplished the main things she set out to do – bring my parents home and start cleaning up the house. There’s much more to clean (I told her it’s a career!), so she’ll probably make another trip to Florida at the beginning of July. We’re praying that in the meantime, Yvonne won’t undo the good work Leive has accomplished.

This morning I took my father to a barber shop, and most of us went to Subway for lunch. We stayed home for the afternoon because another thunderstorm came through; yes, the summertime weather cycle has definitely kicked in. The Hospice folks sent over a nurse to do the paperwork on my mother and check on her; she was here for at least two hours, but promised most future visits won’t last quite as long. She also found out that most of the pain my mother was suffering came from a really bad bedsore, so they’re going to turn her more often after this.

At 6:30 PM Leive went off to see Anita, a Filipina friend of hers in the neighborhood. This is the first time she has driven anywhere by herself in a year and a half. Now it’s half an hour later, and because no phone call came from her, I’m assuming she made it all right, without getting lost or wrecking the Hyundai.

We’re still planning to leave around 6 AM tomorrow. Maybe we can shave an hour off the trip by taking the toll roads to I-75, instead of the roads I took on the first part of the journey in 2006 (Hwys 436, 441 and 44). Unlike my Buick, the Hyundai doesn’t shake when I drive faster than 50 MPH, so that will help us go faster, too. Expect this to be the last message I write before we arrive at home. See you in Kentucky!